I brewed a favorite recipe today

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
IMG_5506.jpeg

Welp… I’m a big dumb dummy. Something wasn’t tasting right with the brown ale, and it seemed to be carbonating strangely. Even after over a week on gas I was still getting minimal head retention with a lot of large bubbles. Flavor wise the beer just tasted muddled and dirty. I had a strong feeling that it was something equipment related. Lo and behold, I found what I assume was the culprit. I’m an idiot and forgot to disassemble and clean the dip tube/ball valve/spigot assembly on my kettle after my previous batch. Needless to say I dumped the batch of brown ale. I gave everything a deep thorough cleaning and threw together a new batch of beer. Brewed it up Tuesday night with ingredients I had on hand. Since it’s that time of year I went with a Sierra Nevada Celebration clone.

6 Lbs Muntons Extra Light DME
1 Lb Sugar Creek Crystal 60
1/2 oz Chinook @60min
1/2 Cascade and 1/4oz Centennial @15
1/2 Cascade and 1/4oz Centennial @0
Planning to dry hop with 1oz Cascade Cryo and 1/2oz Centennial T-90.
Yeast: BRY-97

Hopefully I fixed the issue with the last batch. I hate having to dump beer, but it was my own fault for not being thorough in my cleanliness. I’m hopeful that this batch will come out enjoyable.
 
I brewed a favorite recipe today. I brewed my JB Gold recipe that was designed to show off John Bull extract and East Kent Goldings and Stryian Goldings. John Bull extract hasn't been around for a while and and now you mostly find Celeia instead of Stryian Goldings. I don't know why I found Stryian Goldings, and I didn't ask.

5 gal. water
5 lbs. Muntons amber extract
1/2 lb. Thomas Fawcett 45L crystal malt
1/4 lb. Maris Otter pale malt
1 oz. alpha 5.9 and 1/4 oz. alpha 4.4 East Kent Goldings (BOIL) 7.7 HBU adjusted
1/2 oz. Stryian Goldings (FLAVOR)
1/2 oz. Stryian Goldings (AROMA)
1 Muntons ale yeast

Dissolve 2 1/2 lbs. DME in 1/2 gal. water for late addition
Dissolve 2 1/2 lbs. DME in 1 gal. water for boil
Toast pale malt for 10 min. at 350F, crush gains
Steep grains in 1/2 gal. water for 30 min. at 150-160F
Strain into boil kettle, bring to boil, add boil hops
30 min. boil
10 min add flavor hops
0 min. add late addition and aroma hops
Cool in sink bath before pouring into fermenter
Top to 5 gal., pitch at 70F

HBUs are adjusted down 10% for the 30 min. boil and up 20% for the late addition of half the extract.

This will the Christmas season beer this year:
xmas.png


11/12/23 Transferred to secondary
11/26/23 Bottled with 3/4 cup corn sugar
 
Last edited:
I brewed a favorite recipe today. Today I brewed Peter Cotton Ale, my IPA recipe, but with changes. I first brewed this in 2007, and I've done it fifteen times since then. I like the beer, but I had decided it wasn't very "IPAish." This was decided as part of my exploration of using a secondary or not. Not using a secondary with S33 yeast, which the recipe used, is just unsatisfactory. So this version switches to S04 yeast and no secondary. I also switched to Target as the base boil hop in place of Nugget. Target is British, and, perhaps, a bit less neutral. Its profile suggested bit of Fuggle might enhance the flavor and aroma additions.

Along the way to making the changes, I also decided that the real reason it isn't "IPAish" is that it doesn't use C hops like all the IPAs I get served. Well, I have a recipe that uses Centennial and Cascade. So I will add a pound of malt extract and an ounce of hops to my Summer Ale recipe next year, and brew that as an IPA. So this doesn't have to be more like an IPA. I'm just curious how the changes will work out.

5 gal. water
6 lbs. Muntons amber DME
1/4 lb. Crisp Maris Otter pale ale malt
2 tsp. gypsum
1 oz. Target alpha 10.3 &1/2 oz. East Kent Goldings alpha 5.9 (BOIL) 14.6 HBU adjusted
1/2 oz East Kent Goldings and 1/4 oz. Fuggle (FLAVOR)
3/4 oz. East Kent Goldings & 1/4 oz. Fuggle (AROMA)
S04 ale yeast

Dissolve 3 lbs. DME in 1/2 gal. water for late addition
Dissolve 3 lbs. DME in 1 gal. waterfor boil, add gypsum, begin heating
Toast pale malt for 10 min. at 350, crack grtains
Steep grains in 1/2 gal. water for 30 min. at 150-160
Strain into boil kettle, bring to boil, add boil hops
30 min. boil
10 min. flavor hops
0 min. add late additions and aroma hops
Cool in sink bath before pouring onto fermenter
Top to 5 gal. with cold water, pitch at 70

HBUs adjusted down 10% for 30 min. boil and up 20% for late addition
3099PETER.png
 
Last edited:
I'm curious about the toasted(?) pale malt.
Charlie Papazian had toasted malted barley in a number of his recipes. I learned to brew with his New Complete Joy of Homebrewing.
Put the whole grains in the oven for 10 min. at 350F. After toasting, grains are cracked and steeped. I'm not sure it actually does much for the beer, but your kitchen will smell delicious. :D
 
Last edited:
Back
Top